Public financing and trade center hotel

Researching, or “gathering string,” for Monday’s column on the convention center hotel debate I came across the original request for proposal (RFP) for the development of the facility.

Had to chuckle at what I found under the “financial information/capital structure” section. The intro reads “GIMTCA’s objectives under the development plan are both to minimize any public financial participation in the project; and to attain the most distinctive, highest quality and marketable hotel possible.”

Evidently $50 million in public bonds to finance a $130 million project is Journeyman Austin’s idea of minimizing public financial participation. Actually, at one point, Journeyman’s proposal called for the hotel to be publicly owned and underwritten entirely by the taxpayers. Quite frankly, I was somewhat surprised the developer won the bid given the public financing, particularly after others who bid for the project claim their proposals called for less taxpayer funds.

The next step for me is to take another look at all the proposals. More to come …

Follow the blogger on Twitter @avanbrimmer and on Facebook at /smndaddywarbucks